Ejigayehu Shibabaw, known by her stage name Gigi (born 1974), is an Ethiopian singer. She has performed the

music of Ethiopia Ethiopian music is a term that can mean any music of Ethiopian origin, however, often it is applied to a genre, a distinct modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes. The music of the Ethiopian Hig ...

in combination with a wide variety of other

genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

, often in collaboration with her husband

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, w ...

, a bassist and producer.

Early life and career

Gigi was born and raised in Chagni in northwestern Ethiopia. She has described learning traditional songs from an

Ethiopian Orthodox The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

priest in the family home. She lived in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

for a few years before moving to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in about 1998. Gigi recorded two albums for the expatriate Ethiopian community, but it was her 2001 album, titled simply ''Gigi'', that brought her widespread attention. She had been noticed by

Palm Pictures Palm Pictures is a US-based entertainment company owned and run by Chris Blackwell. Palm Pictures produces, acquires and distributes music and film projects with a particular focus on the DVD-Video format. Palm places an emphasis on such pro ...

owner

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937) is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll ...

, who had years earlier introduced

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

to the mainstream through his former label,

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

. Blackwell and Gigi's producer (and later, husband)

, decided to use American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

musicians (including

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

, and others) to accompany Gigi on the album. The result was a fusion of contemporary and traditional sounds. The album was a critical success internationally and generated controversy in her home country for such a radical break with Ethiopian popular music. This release was soon followed by '' Illuminated Audio'', an ambient dub style remix of the album by Laswell. 2003 saw the release of ''Zion Roots'', under the band name Abyssinia Infinite. Bill Laswell played

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

(instead of his usual bass), and several of Gigi's family members contributed vocals. The album was a return to a mainly acoustic sound for Gigi, incorporating instruments such as the

krar Krar (Amharic: ክራር) is a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale. A modern ''Krar'' may be amplified, much in the same way as an electric guitar or violin. The ''Krar'', along wit ...

and the

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

. The track "Gole" is in

Agaw The Agaw or Agew ( gez, አገው ''Agäw'', modern ''Agew'') are a pan-ethnic identity native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak the Agaw languages, which belong to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic la ...

, the language of Gigi's father's village. Gigi's voice can be heard in the

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

film '' Beyond Borders'' (2003), in which

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...

portrays an aid worker during the

1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

. She released her Three album, ''Gold and Wax'' on

, in 2006. She has also appeared in "Running From the Light" in

Buckethead Brian Patrick Carroll (born May 13, 1969), known professionally as Buckethead, is an American guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has received critical acclaim for his innovative electric guitar playing. His music spans severa ...

's ''

Enter the Chicken ''Enter the Chicken'' is the fourteenth studio album by musician Buckethead. The album was released on October 25, 2005 by Serj Tankian's label Serjical Strike. It has eleven songs, two of which are less than twenty seconds long. It contains appear ...

'' (2005). In 2010, she recorded ''Mesgana Ethiopia'' with

Material Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geologi ...

, released on the

M.O.D. Technologies M.O.D. Technologies is an independent record label based in New York City and intended to be the modern evolution of producer and bassist Bill Laswell's Axiom label. It was founded in 2010 by Laswell and RareNoiseRecords founder Giacomo Bruzzo, ...

label. Her 2001 song "Guramayle" appears in the 2006 documentary ''

God Grew Tired of Us ''God Grew Tired of Us'' is a 2006 American documentary film about three of the "Lost Boys of Sudan", a group of some 25,000 young men who have fled the wars in Sudan since the 1980s, and their experiences as they move to the United States. The fil ...

''. It plays over opening and closing credits.

Personal life

Gigi is married to her producer

. Her younger sister, singer

Tigist Shibabaw Tigist Shibabaw (1980 –January 2008) was an Ethiopian singer and one of the original members of the Harlem-based hip hop fusion band Bole2Harlem. She was born in Chagni, Ethiopia, like her sister, the singer Gigi. Early life Tigist was born ...

, died under unknown circumstances in 2008.

Discography

As leader

* ''Tsehay'', 1997 * ''One Ethiopia'', 1998 * ''Gigi'' (Guramayle), 2001 * ''Illuminated Audio'', 2003 * ''Abyssinia Infinite: Zion Roots'', 2003 * '' Gold & Wax'', 2006 * ''Mesgana Ethiopia'', 2010

Other appearances

* '' Future2Future'' by

* ''Sacred System: Dub Chamber 4 (Book of Exit)'' by Bill Laswell * ''Realize'' by

Karsh Kale Karsh Kale (pronounced ''Kursh Kah-lay'', ''कर्ष काळे'' in Marathi; born 1 November 1974) is an Indian-American musician born in England. Known primarily for his experimental tabla playing within electronic music contexts, Kale' ...

* ''Live at Stern Grove'' by

Tabla Beat Science Tabla Beat Science was a musical group founded in 1999 by Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. Its style consists of a mixture of Hindustani music, Asian Underground, ambient music, drum and bass and electronica. In 2001 Karsh Kale was approached by ...

* ''

Enter The Chicken ''Enter the Chicken'' is the fourteenth studio album by musician Buckethead. The album was released on October 25, 2005 by Serj Tankian's label Serjical Strike. It has eleven songs, two of which are less than twenty seconds long. It contains appear ...

'' by

* ''Radioaxiom'' by Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble * ''Daylightless'' by Fanu (in Salem and Semena-Worck tracks) * ''Shin.e - Lightyears'' by

Shin Terai Shin Terai is a Japanese musician and producer most known for his work with Bill Laswell and Buckethead. On his albums he combines ambient and electronic music with dub and avant-garde jazz. Biography Shin Terai gained some first publicity as ...

and

Notes

References

External links

Gigi Music Page on MySpace.com

Gigi Profile Page on MySpace.com
*

* ''

Afropop Worldwide ''Afropop Worldwide'' is a radio program that presents the musics of Africa and the African diaspora. The program is produced by Sean Barlow for World Music Productions in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. It is hosted by the veteran Cameroonia ...

'' ( PRI program): *
Afropop interview with Gigi
*
Afropop review of ''Gigi''
*
Afropop review of ''Zion Roots''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gigi Living people 21st-century Ethiopian women singers Ethiopian emigrants to the United States 1974 births